Cold War Counterfeit Spies by Nigel West
Author:Nigel West [West, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473879553
Google: BWxhjwEACAAJ
Goodreads: 29275387
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2016-01-15T07:29:53+00:00
Chapter 8
The Vietnam Experience
The revelation in June 2001 by the Boston Globe that the distinguished American historian, Professor Joseph J. Ellis, had fabricated a glorious past for himself, engaged in combat during the Vietnam War with the 101st Airborne Division (at a time when he was teaching military history at the West Point military academy) shocked many of his admirers and those that knew him. The author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation and a biography of Thomas Jefferson that won a Pulitzer Prize, had invented his harrowing tales of being on patrol near Mai Lai shortly before the 1968 massacre, and engaging in bitter fire-fights with the Viet Cong. In fact, Ellis had never served abroad as a soldier, and his military service, which had begun in 1965 when he had been commissioned, had been deferred for four years while he continued his university studies, at Yale.
Certainly he is not alone at having invented his personal involvement in that tragic conflict, which still haunts the American psyche, but why do so many seek to claim a role in what is now perceived as a deeply unpopular intervention in south-east Asia? Senator Tom Harkin often described having participated in air combat over Hanoi, but actually he had been employed ferrying Phantom jets to repair facilities in Japan. Such impostors are now cited as victims of âpseudologic fantasticaâ, most obviously manifested by Roni DeJoseph, a purported Marine veteran from New York, seen in a much published photograph, bemedaled, his head pressed against the Vietnam memorial wall in Washington DC. Subsequent enquiries showed that DeJoseph had never served in any of the American armed forces. Such claims are far from unusual. Those of the actor Brian Dennehy, one of the stars of Rambo, who told a New York Times reporter in 1989 about his experiences as a Green Beret, were disproved, as were those of a judge who falsely claimed a CIA background in Vietnam to obtain a judicial appointment, and those of an academic in Oklahoma who fantasised a career as a U.S. Navy SEAL.
The list of those suspected of having invented a role for themselves in the clandestine confrontation which spread into Laos and Cambodia is remarkable, and includes Lennox Gordon Cramer (Slow Dance on the Killing Ground); Frank Dux (The Secret Man: An American Warriorâs Uncensored Story); Warner Smith (Covert Warrior) and Scott Barnes (BOHICA). Even a British author, Tom Abraham, who wrote The Cage, an account of his capture by the Vietcong while serving in the U.S. Armyâs 1st Cavalry Division during the Tet offensive, has prompted some criticism. Abraham claimed to have escaped from his harrowing captivity, and then to have been returned to his unit to complete his tour of tour duty before returning to the U.S. as an instructor. However, according to the U.S. Army, all escapees were repatriated immediately for lengthy debriefing, and apparently there is no official record of his capture or his subsequent escape. Not dissimilar questions were also raised about another soldier, Frank Dux, who also claimed to have undergone some unusual experiences in Vietnam.
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